A Warrior asks a favor of a vampire
by Claidheamh Mohr
Summary: A surviving claymore warrior inadvertently reveals her true strength to a friend. She goes to a vampire friend for help.


A warrior asks a favor of a vampire

I do not own Claymore

Sheila Ericcson, at her friend Susana's urging had been taking strength training classes. The instructor had taken one look at her lithe 6 foot 6-inch frame and assigned her to a regimen designed to build her up. For Sheila, the weights were not any sort of challenge as she could easily lift over a half ton of dead weight.

Still, she went because her small Filipina friend was actually the one benefitting from the weight training and she had gotten noticably leaner and stronger.

Susana's curvy little frame and cute overall looks often attracted some of the male gym rat types who would offer to "spot" her while she worked out. One in particular, an incredibly overdeveloped body builder, had gotten quite pushy and was now hinting none too subtly at photo shoots in scanty attire at an undisclosed location.

Sheila, seeing her friend's discomfiture at this point, stepped in and said, "Dude, she's not interested, let her alone!"

He turned towards her and looked her up and down over the tops of his mirrored Raybans.

He pushed his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose and retorted, "Hey blondie, she can't speak for herself? What're you, her babysitter?"

Sheila replied cooly, "No, I'm her friend and I'm saying she's not interested!"

The man looked at her in surprise and said, "I guess you don't know who I am, I'm the top dog in this gym and I'm sayin' butt out!" For emphasis, he flexed his massive arms.

Sheila rolled her silvery-gray eyes and retorted cooly, "Your muscles don't impress me and I don't care if you own this gym, we' ll go elsewhere if you persist!"

Susana said anxiously, "It's okay, it's okay, I don't want any problems!"

The muscle bound man leered at Sheila and said, "See! She doesn't mind, so what's your problem?" He picked up a very large dumbell and began curling it, his massive arm muscles bulging ominously.

He grinned at Sheila and said meaningfully, "This weighs almost as much as you do, I am way stronger than you are, so be careful around here, accidents do happen."

Sheila laughed derisively and retorted, " So you're threatening me now? You've just made a very big mistake, you just pissed me off!"

Sheila looked over at Susana and said, "This is why these weights aren't a challenge for me." She stepped over to the weight rack and grasped the heaviest dumbells there, she looked over at the gym rat and said, "What was that about accidents happening?"

She lifted the heavy dumbells with ease and raised them over her head, then she held them out straight to her front and held them there steadily without apparent effort.

The gym rat's tanned face gaped in amazement at her display of strength.

Putting the dumbells back down, Sheila loomed over him and said in a low voice, "If you ever bother or harrass, either me or my friend here, you will be very sorry!"

She glanced over at Susana and said, "C'mon let's go, there's a sword fighting class I want to try."

As they left, Sheila cheerfully said to the gym rat, "By the way big fellah, big muscles are not necessarily stronger!"

As they exited the gym, Sheila saw that some yahoo had parked his big 4X4 truck with all the accessories, right next to her side so she couldn't get into her own SUV.

Susana exclaimed, "Who did this?"

"I'm guessing it was prince little dick, it's just the sort of thing he'd do." replied Sheila. Susana pouted and cried, "What a jerk! Now we have to ask him to move so we can leave." Sheila chuckled and declared, "Not necessarily!"

She stepped behind the truck and grasped the tubular bumper, closing her eyes, she focused inward, drawing on her long suppressed youki reserves for strength.

With a mighty heave, Sheila jerked the truck sideways almost 3 feet, then she stepped to the front of the truck and repeated her feat of strength.

She did this until the truck was within a scant few inches of the block wall on the driver's side.

Sheila then relaxed and allowed her youki reserves to slip back into hiding once more.

Turning around, she saw Susana staring at her with wide eyes and mouth agape.

Sheila smiled slightly and remarked to herself, "I probably shouldn't have done that."

Susana gulped and exclaimed, "You're like an Amazon or a superhero or something! I had no idea you were so strong!"

Sheila sighed and said wearily, "It's a long story and I don't want to talk about it, not now, not here. We need to scram before the owner shows up and makes a scene."

Susana nodded and they got into Sheila's SUV and left the parking structure.

They rode in silence for a little while until Susana finally broke the silence, "What are you?" she asked with a hint of alarm in her voice and in her facial expression.

"What do you mean by that?"

Susana's jaw clenched and she declared, "Ever since I met you, weird things have been happening, things that made no sense at the time."

"What sort of things?"

"You know...Things! Like you beating up those guys so easily, I've had martial arts training and you used moves I had never seen before and you were so fast!"

"I didn't have much choice, the guy had a gun remember? Would you prefer we had gotten gang raped or worse yet, killed?" Susana shook her head in an emphatic "NO!"

They drove in silence for a few minutes more then Susana asked, "What about your friends? You guys are all super athletic and you work out with those ginormous swords and all. Are you guys in some sort of cult or something?"

Sheila burst out laughing for a few moments and replied,"No, we are not a part of any sort of cult. We are all that is left of our ancient culture and we try to blend in and survive just like everybody else."

Sheila opened her cell phone and punched in a number.

After a few rings, she heard Anastasia's voice, "Sheila? Is that you? What's up?"

Sheila replied, "Nothing much, I just wondered if you were up to having a couple of visitors tonight?"

Anastasia replied after a moment, "How many?"

"Just the two of us."

"Us?"

"Myself and Susana."

"Okay, I'll see you soon!" Sheila closed her phone and turned onto the nearest freeway on ramp heading south.

Susana asked in a small voice, "Where are we going?"

Sheila smiled at her and replied cheerfully, "We're going to Anna Karlsen's house!"

Susana gasped and having forgotten her earlier concerns, she blurted out, "For real? Seriously? Wow!"

A few minutes later, they were in old Hollywood threading their way through the traffic. Susana sat wide eyed at the sights and sounds of the people.

"Anna lives down here?" she asked hesitantly, Sheila smiled at her and replied, "Nope! She lives up in the hills overlooking this part of town. Wait'll you see her house, it's a beautiful Queen Anne mansion and it's very gothy!"

Susana leaned back, her almond shaped brown eyes twinkling with anticipation.

A few more minutes of negotiating the narrow, hillside roads and Sheila pulled over and stopped in front of a huge, three story Queen Anne house on a roomy, well tended lot.

Susana peered out the window and exclaimed, "Woah! That's her place? No wonder she writes such good scary stories!"

Sheila chuckled lightly and said, "C'mon, let's go see her, she is expecting us."

As they approached the heavy door, they could hear a big dog barking inside the house. Susana hung back a bit, she wasn't too keen on dogs bigger than her.

Sheila knocked on the door and moments later, a feminine voice shushed the dog and the little portal in the door cracked open to reveal Anastasia's bright blue eyes.

The heavy door opened and Anna Karlsen herself stood in the brightly lit doorway.

She had a smile on her pale, vaguely elfin face, "Imagine that! Visitors at this late hour, what could, the occasion be?" she said as she invited the two inside.

Once inside they were greeted by the big wheat colored German shepherd, once she was satisfied that they were friendly, she resumed her dozing on the carpeting in the hallway. Anastasia grinned at them and said cheerfully, "My, don't you two look fit!"

Susana smiled shyly and said softly, "We just came from the gym and Sheila decided to come here all of the sudden. I would have worn something nicer if I had known ahead of time."

With that, she shot her towering friend a look that said it all.

Anna smiled and said reassuringly, "I'm not real big on formalities here, not at home anyway, come on into my kitchen. The tea is ready."

Susana glanced around at Anna's home and antique furnishings and remarked, "Your house is like being in one of your novels."

Anna shrugged and replied cheerfully, "It's about as close as I can get to living in my made-up world!"

Sheila excused herself for a few moment while Anna led Susana into her kitchen where a tea service was laid out on the side board.

When Sheila returned she said quietly, "The little people's room is straight down the side hallway, first door on the left. Jiggle the handle a bit to make sure it doesn't keep running afterwards."

Susana smiled shyly and headed down the hallway herself.

As her tiny backside disappeared through the doorway and it closed behind her.

Sheila leaned closer to Anastasia and murmured, "I need a favor!"

" Oh? Whatever for?"

"I let her see how strong I really am."

"What?! Why?"

Briefly, Sheila recounted the earlier events of that evening. "Oh! That is not good!" Remarked Anastasia.

"Can you 'fog' her memories of tonight a bit? Make it seem like a weird dream or something?" asked Sheila.

Anastasia smiled and said with a grin, "For you? It'll be a piece of cake!"

When Susana returned, Anna got out a small jar of tea leaves and measured out some of them into a tea ball and placed it into Susana's cup.

Anna slowly poured the hot water over the tea ball then she filled Sheila's cup and lastly, her own cup.

The scents of the herbal teas rose from the cups and mingled together creating a relaxing atmosphere.

Susana smiled and said happily, "This smells so wonderful!"

"It is wonderful." replied Anna, "I find it so relaxing after a long day at the computer."

The three of them raised their cups and took their first sip.

Twenty minutes later, Susana was smiling placidly as the tea's mild effect took hold.

Anna and Sheila were talking normally while surreptitiously watching her reactions to the tea's effects.

She stifled a yawn while she said, "I see what you mean, this tea is very relaxing. I'm not sleepy, I just feel very re...laxed."

Anastasia began talking to her in a soothing, mellifluous voice and Susana seemingly hung on her every word as she became lost in Anastasia's bright blue eyes while she told her own version of the evening's events.

Bit by bit, Anastasia psychically rearranged her memories of the encounter.

She carefully altered the memories of Sheila's extraordinary strength to emphasise the body builder's flexing of his own muscles, instead of Sheila being so incredibly strong.

He had been the one to park his truck so close to the wall instead of Sheila moving his truck. Anastasia slowly altered her memories into a similar though different, set of memories. When Anastasia was finished, she resumed her normal tone of voice and continued talking while Susana returned to her conscious self.

Anastasia offered them more tea and Susana enthusiastically nodded a 'yes'.

As she poured the tea, Anastasia remarked casually, "I don't often entertain non-publishing industry related guests. Lately, it has been schmoozing with agents and screenwriters about a movie deal."

Susana grinned and said, "They're making a movie about one of your books? How cool!" Sheila chuckled and chided her gently, "I think Anna would rather not talk shop right now." Anastasia laughed and said, "I don't mind, nothing's solidified yet. A movie has been proposed, but I haven't agreed to anything yet. The only drawback is that it is keeping me from my own writing projects."

"Still, that is pretty cool. " said Susana as she set down her now empty cup.

"How much writing do you do? She asked.

Anna smiled at her and replied, "Once I've got all my research and notes laid out and the story plotted out. I can bang out a fair sized novel in a couple of weeks of solid, eight hour a day typing time. Computers these days make it so easy! I can do all of my own editing and correcting as I go. No more fooling around with typewriter ribbons wearing out and waiting for the correcting fluid to dry!"

Susana looked at her strangely and asked, "You don't look old enough to have used that stuff, how old are you?"

Anastasia grinned sheepishly and replied, "I started writing in grade school and my grampa taught me how to type with an old type writer he had to speed up my writing."

"Woah! So you've been writing most of your life then." Remarked Susana cheerfully.

"It seems like it's been centuries sometimes!" Replied Anastasia casually as she leaned back in her chair.

Behind her loomed an old bookcase filled with antique leather bound volumes.

Sheila glanced over the volumes and remarked, "You have quite the collection here!" Anastasia grinned and remarked, "Every one of them is a first edition of these books. Most of them I inherited, but many others I bought from rare book dealers. An expensive hobby, I might add!"

Susana peered at the time worn titles and said half to herself, "I've read many of these books as a kid, I didn't know some of these were so old!"

Sheila realized that the books were ones Anastasia herself had written herself under many different pen names over the centuries and she privately wondered at how many volumes her own adventures would fill.

Susana suddenly declaring "We quit going to that gym because some big jerk was hitting on me and when Sheila said something, he threatened her and we left." Brought Sheila back from her reverie.

"He threatened Sheila? What a jerk!" Remarked Anastasia.

"Then when we got out to her car, he had parked his truck right next to her car, so I had to climb over the passenger seat and back her car out so she could get in."

Sheila smiled to herself as Susana chattered, happily unaware that her charming hostess had subtly altered her memories of the evening.

Anastasia asked her, "So what are you going to try next?"

Susana grinned and said "Sword fighting!"

"Sword fighting? Whatever for?" Asked a startled Anastasia.

"Sheila and her friends work out with these ginormous swords, you should see them go at it, it's amazing they haven't killed each other!"

"Ginormous?"

"It's a combination of giant and enormous, ginormous!" Replied Susana cheerfully.

"Oh! I hadn't heard it before." commented Anastasia, "Most of the English I use in my writing is from the 17th and 18th centuries, so I'm not real up to date on current usage."

Anastasia glanced at her kitchen clock and said regretfully, "I hate to be a drag, but I do have some work to do before I call it a day!"

Sheila grinned at Anastasia and remarked, "I do appreciate you letting us pop by on such short notice!"

Anastasia grinned back and replied, "It's not a problem, I'm glad I could see you guys. I enjoyed the little diversion!"

After saying their farewells, the two drove off and headed back to the valley and home.

As she drove, Sheila glanced over at her small friend and smiled, she was sound asleep.

It was all a part of Anastasia's psychic manipulation of her memories.

In the morning it would be little more than a vivid dream.

Sheila made a mental note to avoid situations where she might have to reveal her extraordinary strength in front of relative strangers.

While Susana was a good friend, it was better that she did not know about Sheila's or Anastasia's true nature.

How could she ever explain to her that vampires really did exist and that claymore warriors were more than just a legend?

5


End file.
